A Look Back Into the History of Boatbuilding | Soundings Online

It was 1947, and by the time this photo of Maine’s Flying Santa passing Boston light was taken, the holiday flights started by Capt. William Wincapaw were delivering Christmas presents to some 176 lighthouses and Coast Guard stations in New England.

An “Old Florida” fisherman gets help tying up at the wharf on Lower Matecumbe Key in December 1938. And what a functional little craft he has. The flush-deck design that was so popular for motoryachts of the day made sense in a little boat like this one, too.

In 1901, the Sept. 25 cover of the satirical magazine Puck featured this cartoon of “The Wizard of Bristol” Nathanael Herreshoff and Boston yachtsman Thomas Lawson bemoaning the failure of their respective defenders for the upcoming America’s Cup. Herreshoff wasn’t used to such things; he’d designed and built every defending victor since 1893.

Here’s a sight familiar to East Coast cruisers: the vertical lift bridge spanning the Cape Cod Canal in Bourne, Mass. It’s an unusual shot of the railroad bridge in its half-raised position. Unlike most opening bridges, which only open for boat traffic, this span stays in a raised position in deference to the 20,000 vessels that pass beneath it each year.

Shipwrecks were a common occurrence during the age of sail, what with thousands of vessels plying America’s inland and coastal waters. But there were shipwrecks and then there were shipwrecks. Some involved the tragic loss of life; others were merely an inconvenience to ship owners.